Mobile phone companies are facing new legal action from brain tumor victims in the United States, Britain's Times of London has reported.

According to the paper, Peter Angelos, a US lawyer who recently helped win $4.2 billion in damages from the tobacco industry, is planning to launch 10 claims against handset manufacturers, mobile network operators and fixed-line phone companies.

The news comes amid continued concern among some mobile phone users that radiation from handsets could cause brain tumors.

In a separate case, a Maryland neurologist filed an $800 million lawsuit against handset maker Motorola Inc. in August as well as eight other telecommunications companies and organizations, claiming that his use of cellphones caused a malignant brain tumor.

For a successful campaign, the lawyers are likely hoping that a court would grant them access to mobile companies' internal documents and that they will be able to get experts to testify of possible dangers.

A US study published this month concluded there did not appear to be any link, though it said more research was needed into the impact of long-term use of mobile phones.

However, the study by the American Health Foundation was funded in part by a research group established by the cellular telephone industry, which put more than $28 million into a blind escrow account for the group to finance research.

The newspaper reports that Angelos, who fought the tobacco industry in Maryland, plans to launch two claims against the mobile phone companies before March, and the remaining seven or eight within a year.

If these companies knew about the dangers of cellphone radiation they should be punished and they should be punished dearly: not only for what they did to the public, but for the billions of pounds of profits they made.

The Times (London), December 28, 2000